Reactive Extensions (Rx) now supports LINQ in C++, goes open source

By Blog Staff | Nov 15, 2012 04:40 PM | Tags: None

Reactive Extensions (Rx) is now open source and supports LINQ styles in C++.

From the announcement, Rx is already being used for a number of highly responsive applications including GitHub for Windows:

According to Paul Betts at GitHub, "GitHub for Windows uses the Reactive Extensions for almost everything it does, including network requests, UI events, managing child processes (git.exe). Using Rx and ReactiveUI, we've written a fast, nearly 100% asynchronous, responsive application, while still having 100% deterministic, reliable unit tests. The desktop developers at GitHub loved Rx so much, that the Mac team created their own version of Rx and ReactiveUI, called ReactiveCocoa, and are now using it on the Mac to obtain similar benefits."

In addition to Rx's original support for .NET and new support for Javascript, Rx has also added support for C++:

Rx++: The Reactive Extensions for Native (RxC) is a library for composing asynchronous and event-based programs using observable sequences and LINQ-style query operators in both C and C++.

Ix++: An implementation of LINQ for Native Developers in C++.

Where to download or find out more: https://rx.codeplex.com/

Meeting C++ 2012: European C++ users group meeting

By Blog Staff | Nov 8, 2012 01:21 PM | Tags: None

C++ continues to heat up with new conferences! Europeans now have something similar to C++ Now (formerly BoostCon), one organized and hosted by Europeans, but open to anyone:

Meeting C++ 2012

Nov 9-10, 2012, Düsseldorf/Neuss, Germany

Meeting C++ is being held with the collaboration of C++ Users Groups from Dusseldorf, Berlin, and Belgium. The inaugural conference already has over 175 attendees registered, and a rich talk list of current C+ topics. WG21's own Michael Wong will give a keynote on Good C++ Coding Style.

Boost 1.52.0 released

By Blog Staff | Nov 5, 2012 08:11 PM | Tags: None

Release 1.52.0 of the Boost C++ Libraries is now available.

These open-source libraries work well with the C++ Standard Library, and are usable across a broad spectrum of applications. The Boost license encourages both commercial and non-commercial use.

Releases 1.51.0 and 1.52.0 contain one new library (Boost.Context, by Oliver Kowalke) and numerous enhancements and bug fixes for existing libraries.

Here are some useful links for 1.52.0.

• Details, including download links.
• NOTE: A breaking change related to decltype and result_of is described in this special release note.
• You can also download directly from SourceForge.
• To install this release on your system, see getting started.

Many thanks to the Boost release team:

    Beman Dawes
    Daniel James
    Eric Niebler
    Marshall Clow
    Rene Rivera
    Vladimir Prus

We very much appreciate their continued hard work.

The Future of C++ -- Herb Sutter

By Blog Staff | Nov 3, 2012 08:29 AM | Tags: intermediate

Yesterday, many thousands of you were in the room or live online for Herb Sutter's talk, now available online:

The Future of C++

Herb Sutter
November 2, 2012

From Herb's video announcement summary:

This has been a phenomenal year for C++, since C++11’s publication just 12 months ago. And yesterday was a great day for C++.

Yesterday I had the privilege of announcing much of what Microsoft and the industry have been working on over the past year.

(minor) C++ at Microsoft

On September 12, we shipped VC++ 2012 with the complete C++11 standard library, and adding support for C++11 range-for, enum class, override and final. Less than two months later, yesterday we announced and shipped the November 2012 CTP, a compiler add-in to VC++ 2012 adding C++11 variadic templates, uniform initialization and initializer_lists, delegating constructors, function template default arguments, explicit conversion operators, and raw string literals. Details here, and download here.

Note that this is just the first batch of additional C++11 features. Expect further announcements and deliveries in the first half of 2013.

(major) C++ across the industry

Interest and investment in C++ continues to accelerate across the software world.

• ISO C++ standardization is accelerating. Major companies are dedicating more people and resources to C++ standardization than they have in years. Over the next 24 months, we plan to ship three Technical Specifications and a new C++ International Standard.
• C++ now has a home on the web at isocpp.org. Launched yesterday, it both aggregates the best C++ content and hosts new content itself, including Bjarne Stroustrup’s new Tour of C++ and Scott Meyers’ new Universal References article.
• We now have a Standard C++ Foundation. Announced yesterday, it is already funded by the largest companies in the industry down to startups, financial institutions to universities, book publishers to other consortia, with more members joining weekly. For the first time in C++’s history since AT&T relinquished control of the language, we have an entity – a trade organization – that exists exclusively to promote Standard C++ on all compilers and platforms, and companies are funding it because the world runs on C++, and investing in Standard C++ is good business.

This is an exciting time to be part of our industry, on any OS and using any language. It’s especially an exciting time to be involved with C++ on all compilers and platforms.

Thank you all, whatever platform and language you use, for being part of it.

Links:

• Broad C++ news release covering the CTP, standardization, site, and Foundation
• Talk video covering these announcements

C++ coming back into the mainstream with more specs, more often -- Peter Bright

By Blog Staff | Nov 2, 2012 04:48 PM | Tags: None

Peter Bright at Ars Technica:

C++ coming back into the mainstream with more specs, more often

Visual Studio 2012 standard conformance updates on the way.

At BUILD in Redmond today, Microsoft announced its plans to improve C++ standards conformance in its Visual Studio development environment, and talked about ways in which C++ would become a better, regularly updated, modern programming language. Microsoft developer and C++ standard committee secretary Herb Sutter introduced work being done by the C++ community to make the language better, and also discussed the work being done by Microsoft to make its own compiler better...

[Continue reading]

Boost 1.52.0 expected on Monday, November 5

By Blog Staff | Nov 1, 2012 10:59 AM | Tags: None

Release 1.52.0 of the Boost C++ Libraries is expected on Monday, November 5.

These open-source libraries work well with the C++ Standard Library, and are usable across a broad spectrum of applications. The Boost license encourages both commercial and non-commercial use.

Releases 1.51.0 and 1.52.0 contain one new library (Boost.Context, by Oliver Kowalke) and numerous enhancements and bug fixes for existing libraries.

Here are some useful links for 1.51.0. We expect these to be updated on Monday.

• Details, including download links.
• You can also download directly from SourceForge.
• To install this release on your system, see getting started.

Many thanks to the Boost release team:

    Beman Dawes
    Daniel James
    Eric Niebler
    Marshall Clow
    Rene Rivera
    Vladimir Prus

We very much appreciate their continued hard work.

TC++PL4e: Coming soon, and preview cover shot

By Blog Staff | Oct 28, 2012 01:05 PM | Tags: None

Great news for C++ fans: Bjarne Stroustrup's authoritative book The C++ Programming Language has always been the book describing Standard C++. The latest news is that Bjarne is well along revising it for a new Fourth Edition that thoroughly covers the new C++11 standard.

There's no firm ship date at this time (sorry), but we hear that it's almost done and coming in a matter of months.

For now, here's a sneak peek at the near-final cover — enjoy.

Reminder: Bjarne Stroustrup live tomorrow in Austin, TX

By Blog Staff | Sep 18, 2012 10:45 AM | Tags: None

Reminder: Bjarne Stroustrup is appearing live tomorrow in Austin, TX.

C++11 Style: A Touch of Class (Bjarne Stroustrup)

September 19, Austin, TX, USA

What principles, techniques, and idioms can we exploit to make it easier to produce quality code? This presentation reflects my thoughts on what “Modern C++” should mean in the 2010s: a language for programming based on light-weight abstraction with a direct and efficient mapping to hardware, suitable for infrastructure code. I will make an argument for type-rich interfaces, compact data structures, integrated resource management and error handling, and highly-structured algorithmic code. I will illustrate my ideas and motivate my guidelines with a few idiomatic code examples. I will use C++11 freely. Examples include auto, general constant expressions, uniform initialization, type aliases, type safe threading, and user-defined literals. C++ features are only just starting to appear in production compilers, so some of my suggestions have the nature of conjecture. However, developing a “modern style” is essential if we don’t want to maintain newly-written 1970s and 1980s style code in 2020.

Free two-day event: Silicon Valley codecamp_12 for C++11

By Blog Staff | Sep 14, 2012 04:33 PM | Tags: None

The page's own intro says it all:

C++ is Hot!

Mobile and cloud technologies are re-energizing interest in the uncompromising performance that C++ delivers and the new ISO/ANSI standard (C++11) introduces features that allow programmers to achieve that performance with ever greater expressiveness.

Join us as we discuss how to get the most out of Classic C++ and discover the new features of C++11 that are being delivered now by the latest compilers.

Sessions in this track are being given by award winning presenters. We will go beyond Procedural and Object-Oriented Paradigms to explore Generic Programming and Logic Paradigms. We will teach you how to write code in both Classic C++ and C++11 that you can be confident is performant, maintainable, and 100% robust in the face of exceptions. We will cover new C++11 features, including the new standard for threading and what Scott Meyer’s calls “the marquee feature of C++11,” move semantics. We will also introduce you to some powerful new tool sets, one from Microsoft and the other Open Source (Clang), for use with both Classic C++ and C++11.

Fall WG21 meeting: Register by Fri Sep 14 (this week)

By Herb Sutter | Sep 12, 2012 02:04 PM | Tags: None

Via Clark Nelson:

Final reminder: The registration page for the Portland meeting (Oct 15-19, 2012) closes after this Friday, September 14. If you're planning to come and haven't made your reservation yet, don't delay to get the discount room rate.

Registration page for Portland meeting

A few people have asked about reserving a room at the DoubleTree outside the range of dates acceptable to the web site. Just reserve what you can, and make your request for additional days in the "Special Requirements" box. Be advised that the DoubleTree is already all booked up for both Saturday nights, October 13 and 20.

More information about the Portland meeting:

• Meeting invitation paper
• Agenda
• See also: "So, what exactly happens at meetings?"